Diarrhea is commonly caused by infection by a variety of bacteria, parasites and viruses and is a fundamental threat to regions lacking potable water. Preventing exposure to the pathogens responsible for diarrhea is the only way to avert infection. Unfortunately, this requires massive improvement in both sanitation and nutritional status in developing countries, which is unlikely to occur in the short term. Thus, it is a continuing threat to the third world and especially the health of children who may lack a robust immune response. Second only to respiratory infection, diarrheal disease is responsible for approximately two million deaths in children under five years of age annually. Many who do survive have lasting health problems due to the effects of recurrent infections and malnutrition. Diarrheal diseases also are the major cause of childhood hospitalization, primarily for dehydration. Each year in developing countries, roughly four billion episodes of acute diarrhea, or approximately 3.2 episodes per child, occur among children under five years of age. See, in general, Diarrheal Diseases Fact Sheet, available at www.oneworldhealth.org.
Diarrheal episodes can be either acute or persistent (lasting two weeks or more). Of all childhood infectious diseases, diarrheal diseases are thought to have the greatest effect on growth, by reducing appetite, altering feeding patterns, and decreasing absorption of nutrients. The number of diarrheal episodes in the first two years of life has been shown not only to affect growth but also fitness, cognitive function, and school performance.
The primary cause of death from diarrhea is dehydration. As dehydration worsens, symptoms progress from thirst, restlessness, decreased skin turgor and sunken eyes to diminished consciousness, rapid and feeble pulse and low or undetectable blood pressure. Diarrhea also often arises as a result of coinfection with other diseases such as malaria and HIV and is frequently a comorbidity factor associated with deaths due to these diseases.
It is well established that the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein plays a pivotal role in enterotoxin-mediated secretory diarrheal disease and dehydration which occurs as a consequence of body fluid loss following electrolyte transport across the epithelial cells lining the gastrointestinal tract. Kunzelmann and Mall, (2002) Physiological Rev. 82(1):245-289. CFTR is a 1480 amino acid protein that is a member of the ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter family. The CFTR cAMP-activated Cl− channel is expressed primarily in the apical or luminal surface of epithelial cells in mammalian intestine, lungs, proximal tubules (and cortex and medulla) of kidney, pancreas, testes, sweat glands and cardiac tissue where it functions as the principal pathway for secretion of Cl(−)/HCO3(−) and Na(+)/H(+). See Field et al. (1974) N. Engl. J. Med. 71:3299-3303 and Field et al. (1989) N. Eng. J. Med. 321:879-883.
In secretory diarrhea, intestinal colonization by pathogenic microorganisms alter ion transport, disrupt tight cell junctions and activate an inflammatory response. Enterotoxins produced by Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) and Vibrio cholerae bind to receptors on the luminal surface of enterocytes and generates intracellular second messengers that lead to upregulation of CFTR and secretion of negatively charged ions (e.g. chloride) across the intestinal epithelia which creates the driving force for sodium and water secretion. Kunzelmann (2002) supra. Luminal CFTR therefore plays the central role in secretory diarrhea and the excessive loss of water which leads to severe dehydration and rapid progression to death if untreated. Blocking ion transport across luminal CFTR channels has been proposed as one way to treat secretory diarrhea and other disease etiologically related to ion transport across CFTR channels.
Mutations in CFTR protein, e.g., ΔF508, are responsible for cystic fibrosis (CF), one of the most common serious inherited diseases amongst Caucasians, affecting approximately 1 in 2,500 individuals. Pedemonte et al. (2005) J. Clin. Invest. 115(9):2564-2571. In the United States and in the majority of European countries, the incidence of carriers of the CF gene is 1 in 20 to 1 in 30. CF can affect many organs including sweat glands (high sweat electrolyte with depletion in a hot environment), intestinal glands (meconium ileus), biliary tree (biliary cirrhosis), pancreas (CF patients can be pancreatic insufficient and may require enzyme supplements in the diet) and bronchial glands (chronic bronchopulmonary infection with emphysema). Hormones, such as a β-adrenergic agonist, or a toxin, such as cholera toxin, lead to an increase in cAMP, activation of cAMP-dependent protein kinase, and phosphorylation of the CFTR Cl− channel, which causes the channel to open. An increase in cell Ca2+ can also activate different apical membrane channels. Phosphorylation by protein kinase C can either open or shut Cl− channels in the apical membrane.
The transport of fluids mediated by CFTR also has been linked to Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) is the most common genetic renal disorder occurring in 1:1000 individuals and is characterized by focal cyst formation in all tubular segments. Friedman, J. Cystic Diseases of the Kidney, in PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF MEDICAL GENETICS (A. Emery and D. Rimoin, Eds.) pp. 1002-1010, Churchill Livingston, Edinburgh, U.K. (1983); Striker & Striker (1986) Am. J. Nephrol. 6:161-164. Extrarenal manifestations include hepatic and pancreatic cysts as well as cardiovascular complications. Gabow & Grantham (1997) Polycystic Kidney Disease, in DISEASES OF THE KIDNEY (R. Schrier & C. Gottschalk, Eds.), pp. 521-560, Little Brown, Boston; Welling & Grantham (1996) Cystic Diseases of the Kidney, in RENAL PATHOLOGY (C. Tisch & B. Brenner, Eds.) pp: 1828-1863, Lippincott, Philadelphia. Studies suggest that increased cAMP-mediated chloride secretion provides the electrochemical driving force, which mediates fluid secretion in cystic epithelia. Nakanishi et al. (2001) J. Am. Soc. Nethprol. 12:719-725. PKD is a leading cause of end-stage renal failure and a common indication for dialysis or renal transplantation. PKD may arise sporadically as a developmental abnormality or may be acquired in adult life, but most forms are hereditary. Among the acquired forms, simple cysts can develop in kidney as a consequence of aging, dialysis, drugs and hormones. Rapaport (2007) QJM 100:1-9 and Wilson (2004) N. Eng. J. Med. 350:151-164.
CFTR inhibitors have been discovered, although they have a weak potency and lack CFTR specificity. The oral hypoglycemic agent glibenclamide inhibits CFTR Cl− conductance from the intracellular side by an open channel blocking mechanism (Sheppard & Robinson (1997) J. Physiol. 503:333-346; Zhou et al. (2002) J. Gen. Physiol. 120:647-662) at high micromolar concentrations where it affects Cl− and other cation channels. Rabe et al. (1995) Br. J. Pharmacol. 110:1280-1281 and Schultz et al. (1999) Physiol. Rev. 79:S109-S144. Other non-selective anion transport inhibitors including diphenylamine-2-carboxylate (DPC), 5-nitro-2(3-phenylpropyl-amino)benzoate (NPPB), flufenamic acid and niflumic acid also inhibit CFTR by occluding the pore at an intracellular site. Dawson et al. (1999) Physiol. Rev. 79:S47-S75; McCarty (2000) J. Exp. Biol. 203:1947-1962, Cai et al. (2004) J. Cyst. Fibrosis 3:141-147. Hence, high-affinity CFTR inhibitors can have clinical applications in the therapy of secretory diarrheas, cystic kidney disease, and other associated disorder reported to be mediated by functional CFTR.